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New Salem Methodist Church
By Martha Fant
New Salem Methodist Church was founded in the late 1830s in the community of Bainsville. This
community, in the northwestern part of Marshall County, many years later changed its name to Cayce.
New Salem Methodist Church has had three church buildings on the historic grounds. The first was a
log meeting house which faced south. It was replaced around 1850 with a larger one-room frame building
which also faced south. In 1908, this structure was torn down and the present building was erected
which faces toward the east. The church was originally a part of the Mississippi Conference and
became the property of the M.E. Church South in 1844 when the first major division of Methodism in
America took place. About 1883 the Mississippi Conference was divided and the North Mississippi
Conference was formed.
Behind the church is the old cemetery whose tombstones bear the names of some of the early pioneer
families of this area. Some of the families buried there are: Boggan, Broadaway, Butler, Frost,
Harrison, High, Hooks, Hopper, Jones, Lendermon, Moore, Polk, Rhoads, Robertson, Salmon, Tilghmon,
Thompson, Vick, Williams, and Wilson.
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